Harare’s parliament house fell silent for a moment before the vote. Then the speaker’s gavel came down, and with it, the final check on presidential power. Zimbabwe’s MPs on Wednesday passed a bill that allows President Emmerson Mnangagwa to handpick senior judges, dissolve the electoral commission, and bypass the legislature on key appointments.
The constitutional amendment, supported by the ruling Zanu-PF’s two-thirds majority, was rammed through without opposition input after most opposition MPs were arrested or barred from the chamber. Britain called it a “blatant democratic backslide”. For Zimbabweans, already crushed by hyperinflation, unemployment above 80 per cent, and a currency that loses value by the hour, it is another nail in the coffin of hope.
“They are turning this country into a monarchy,” said Tafadzwa, a taxi driver in Harare who earns less than two dollars a day. “We cannot afford bread. Now we cannot vote for who judges us.
What is left?” The bill now goes to the Senate, which is also held by Zanu-PF. Mnangagwa, in power since a 2017 coup that ousted Robert Mugabe, has promised elections next year.
But with the opposition muzzled, the courts packed, and the electoral commission now a presidential appointment, few believe a free vote is possible.
